Saudi Arabia added to human-trafficking list

U.S. threatens sanctions if ally, 13 other nations don't attempt to curb the practice

ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press

Published 5:30 am, Saturday, June 4, 2005

WASHINGTON - The United States accused 14 nations Friday of failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers.

The countries include Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terror.

Three other U.S. allies in the Middle East — Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — were newly listed this year as nations that are failing to adequately address trafficking problems. The State Department said the 14 countries could be subject to sanctions if they do not crack down.

As many as 800,000 people are bought and sold across national borders annually or lured to other countries with false promises of work or other benefits, the State Department said in its annual survey of international human trafficking. Most are women and children.

"Trafficking in human beings is nothing less than a modern form of slavery," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

The department placed China, South Africa and 25 other countries on a watch list. Those nations have trafficking problems, but their governments are making what the State Department calls significant efforts to combat them.

Saudi Arabia has turned a blind eye to the problem of poor or low-skilled workers brought into the country and exploited or who go there voluntarily but find themselves in "involuntary servitude," the report said.

Saudi employers physically and sexually abuse migrants from South Asia, Africa and other places, withhold pay and travel documents or use migrant children as forced beggars, the report said.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment on the report.

The Justice Department is expected to issue a separate report on trafficking in the United States later this month.